Candlestick
by BridgitKiido
Summary: If the Light is supposedly so powerful, then how come Fubuki was able to resist it?  It's something Saiou has wondered about...
1. Part I

**Candlestick**

by BridgitKiido

Disclaimer: I don't own GX.

Timeline Note: This story takes place during season 2 and refers to events through around episode 70 or so. If you're caught up with the English version, you should be more than fine.

* * *

Fubuki hadn't seen it coming. Not by a long shot.

Manjoume had always been eccentric. After Judai disappeared, when the usually dark and angry boy had started insisting on being surrounded in only white and begun preaching about some Hikari no Kessha thing, everyone had dismissed it as him finally going off the deep end. Fubuki had thought to confront his protégé about the issue, but he figured that it was just a phase and he'd stop soon. (Besides, he still had a ton of schoolwork to catch up on, after being trapped in a parallel dimension for a year and a half.)

By the time he _did_ realize that, just maybe, Manjoume seriously needed some help, the boy had already converted half of the Obelisk Blue dorm into white-obsessed loonies, and said loonies had decided that a great time to attempt to convert the Blizzard Prince would be when he was practicing his ukulele, in his own, highly colorful room.

Yeesh, hadn't these people ever heard of privacy? Not that Fubuki'd been doing anything that would merit it, but still. They could have at least knocked, rather than physically kicking the door in.

So, he had been immediately challenged by about a dozen of his dorm-mates to duels, the stakes being that if they won, Fubuki would join the Hikari no Kessha. They wouldn't take no for an answer, either, even when he told them that he just wanted to practice his music. They even blatantly _insulted_ his talent at the ukulele, claiming that it sounded like a pigeon was dying.

Fubuki won all of those duels. Hey, he wasn't placed on a ranking that could rival the Kaiser for nothing. And no one – _no one_ – insulted his musical talent.

But then came the real shocker – just after the Prince had managed to fix his door, Manjoume challenged him. His student in love – his _protégé_ – was now ordering him to duel him. And he was to be called "Manjoume White Thunder".

Fubuki had always been allowed to add a –kun instead.

It was a tough match. Fubuki held his own quite well. But whatever the reason – exhaustion from playing so many others before, or confusion about Manjoume's sudden change in attitude toward him, or possibly even hidden depression after having been told that his music stunk – Fubuki could not hold off the final onslaught, his life points trickled down to zero, and, surprisingly, he lost consciousness.

* * *

"_Be embraced by the Light…"_

_Fubuki swore he heard a voice calling out to him, but he couldn't for the life of him figure out who it was or where it was coming from._

"_The Light will solve everything."_

_Something white was reaching out toward him, attempting to consume him. He wanted to move away, but he couldn't…_

_And yet, something black prevented the white from capturing him._

"_I'm not about to let _you_ take _my_ host away from me."_

_The white material growled, but backed away when it realized it was overpowered._

_What was this strange black-ness? Why did it prevent the white-ness from consuming him? What had it meant, its 'host'? And why did it seem oddly familiar?_

"_I borrowed a year of your life from you – it only seems fair that I give you something in return. You know me as Darkness… but now, it's time for you to wake up, Fubuki Tenjoin."_

* * *

When Fubuki came to, it took him a minute to remember what he had been doing before he passed out. Most of it came back, however, when he noticed that Manjoume was leaning over him. His expression was far from caring – if anything, it was one of curiosity, as if to see if something worked.

Sitting up, he rubbed the back of his aching head and muttered, "Yeesh, Manjoume-kun. Don't you think you could have gone a little easier on me?"

The boy in white looked almost flabbergasted. "You mean, you haven't seen the Light?"

"What light?"

One of the other converted students piped up, "So… you're not joining the Hikari no Kessha?"

Fubuki looked confused. "Why would I?"

* * *

"This dorm is for followers of Saiou-sama only! So stay out!"

Fubuki landed on the ground with a thump. How he had been physically thrown out of the dorm by classmates who were at least two years younger than him physically, he couldn't begin to guess. But all thoughts of that disappeared as he noticed the biggest change yet:

The Obelisk Blue dorm's outside walls had all been painted a bright, nearly blinding white. Regular sunlight, admittedly, still gave him headaches if he was out for too long on a particularly sunny day, but just glancing at the dorm now gave him a migraine.

Nope. He hadn't seen this coming at all.

* * *

"Saiou-sama!"

Duel Academia's resident fortune-teller was busy at his tarot-reading table again, but he always had time to see his most loyal follower. "What is it, Manjoume?"

White Thunder bowed before Saiou and reported, "Nearly the entire Obelisk dorm has been converted, as was your will, Saiou-sama."

Saiou tilted his head. "Nearly?"

"There are a few stragglers, but none worth your concern. Momoe and Junko can hardly hold their own, and would make us a laughing stock. As for Fubuki Tenjoin… well, you wouldn't really want him around anyway. He's very annoying and insists on playing his awful music."

"Hmm," Saiou mused. "Intriguing. Yet another person who resists my power. I will have to investigate him. Excellent work, Manjoume. Tomorrow, please continue with the Ra Yellow dormitory."

"As you command, Saiou-sama."

* * *

"So, what are you going to do, Fubuki-san?"

Judai's question slightly startled Fubuki, causing him to spill a bit of his rice that he had been absentmindedly poking. "Huh?"

"Now that Asuka has joined that Hikari no Kessha thing, and they've taken over your dormitory. What are you going to do now?"

Fubuki stared at his food for another moment before replying, "Well, if it's okay with you and the others, I think I'd like to crash at your dorm for the night, seeing as the other students will have a fit if I try to go back to my room. Then, tomorrow, I'll sneak in during my free period and grab my stuff, and I'll figure it out from there."

"Hopefully they'll be considerate enough to leave your room intact."

"Oh, they can't get in." The Blizzard Prince smiled, replying in a somewhat sing-song-like tone. "I have a single room, so I'm the only one with a key. Even if they tried to kick the door down, Chronos-sensei won't tolerate destruction of school property."

Judai smiled back, and the two of them went back to eating their respective dinners.

* * *

_Author's Note: This is going to have a second part… it just got a little too long to be just a one-shot. The reason for it being called Candlestick will be explained in the second half, if you're wondering…_


	2. Part II

**Candlestick**

by BridgitKiido

Disclaimer: I don't own GX. I am not making money off of this. I am doing this for fun. Please don't hurt me.

Timeline Notes: They're pretty much the same as the first chapter. Again, if you're caught up with the English dub, you should be more than fine.

* * *

Things were going fairly smoothly now. Well, considering the circumstances, anyway. Fubuki still got glares whenever he set foot in the Obelisk B-White dining hall – he didn't particularly mind, as it gave him an excuse to eat outside. And as long as he snuck in through the window, no one gave him a hassle about staying in his own room, so he didn't have to move. (He liked going through the window, anyway. It made him feel like a ninja.) Yeah, he spent a lot more time than usual down by the beach, but he certainly couldn't say that the exercise was bad for him.

But then, something very much unexpected occurred.

"Excuse me, are you Fubuki Tenjoin?"

The Blizzard Prince, who had just finished a round of surfing and was currently toweling off, tilted his head at the person asking. There was no way that this guy was a teenager – he had to be twenty two at the youngest. He wore your average Obelisk Blue uniform, which was rare in and of itself to see these days – the only people Fubuki had seen from that dorm recently who hadn't converted to wearing only white, besides himself, were Momoe and Junko. And his hair was somewhat odd too, being blue with a single tuft of white in the middle. "Yes, that's me. And you are…?"

The mystery man held out his hand. "Takuma Saiou. It's a pleasure to meet you, Tenjoin-san."

Fubuki accepted the handshake that had been offered with a smile, but then realized something. "Saiou… that name sounds familiar. Aren't you the person everyone at the Obelisk Blue dorm is currently obsessing over? The leader of the Hikari no Kessha?"

"Yes," replied Saiou, in an almost hissing tone.

Fubuki gulped. "So, you're probably here to get me to join your cult, aren't you."

"It's not a cult, and I am not here to get you to join."

Fubuki internally breathed a sigh of relief.

"In truth, you should have seen the Light and joined about two weeks ago, but something caused you to defy your destiny and resist."

Wait… two weeks ago? That was about the time he had fallen unconscious after that duel with Manj-White Thunder. _They_ had also mentioned something about him not seeing the Light…

"Therefore, I challenge you to a duel, to test whether you really are able to defy your destiny."

"A duel? Sure thing. I won't go easy on you though. And how about, if I win, you convince Manjoume-kun and Asuka to leave your Hikari no Kessha thing and go back to normal?" Good thing he had brought his duel disk. It was wrapped in a towel, in order to keep it from getting sandy or wet, but he always brought it with him. (School policy.)

Saiou brandished his own duel disk. "That sounds fair. Though I must warn you, I have foreseen that winning this battle is not your destiny."

Fubuki internally rolled his eyes. This guy sounded like a broken record, always talking about destiny.

"Duel!" both of them shouted as each of their Duel Disks displayed a counter of 4000 life points. They each drew a hand.

"As the challenged player, I'll go first," Fubuki said as he drew a card. He then summoned Pitch-Black Warwolf (1600/600) in attack mode and activated the continuous spell Spotlight which raised the wolf's attack points to 1900. "And that ends my turn."

After drawing a card, Saiou summoned Arcana Force I: The Magician (1100/1100) in attack mode. The virtual system flipped a coin, visualized by an image of the card turning around and around; apparently, the coin landed as heads, because the card's image stopped as right side up, and its effect became that the activation of a spell card doubled its attack power for that turn. He then played the spell Arcanatic Deathscythe, sending an Arcana Force XVIII: The Moon from his deck to his graveyard. This also doubled his Magician's attack points to 2200, and Saiou ordered his Magician to attack Fubuki's Warwolf. The total damage, 2200, was enough to knock Fubuki's points down to 1800.

Fubuki then drew a card and grimaced slightly. He had drawn the Red Eyes Black Chick. Why had he put that in his deck again?

…Oh right. He had gone for extra help with Chronos-sensei after losing that match to his sister (well, he _was_ slightly out of shape, having not been around for a good year and a half), and he had suggested that maybe a couple of the dragons would be good to put into the deck. After all, they had the strength that some of his warriors lacked. And he supposed, if he ever became a singer, he might sing at least one song featuring dragons. They were a part of his life, after all, no matter how unwillingly.

So he _had_ included the Red Eyes Black Chick and Dragon. He refused to put in the Red Eyes Darkness Dragon though – it brought back too many horrible memories, and sometimes he swore he could feel something in that card trying to get to him again.

So, Fubuki summoned his Red Eyes Black Chick and, sacrificing it, used its special ability to special summon his Red Eyes Black Dragon (2400/2000) in attack mode. He then activated the spell card Inferno Fire Blast, dealing 2400 direct damage to Saiou's life points and bringing him down to 1600 points. Yes, the Magician's attack points were doubled, but that hardly mattered, because the dragon was not allowed to attack this turn, so Fubuki ended his turn by placing two cards face down in his magic and trap zone.

When Saiou drew his card, he smirked. "Well, it appears that destiny is on my side today." He then played the magic card Reverse Reborn to special summon the Arcana Force XVIII: The Moon (2800/2800) from his graveyard in attack mode. The spell card set its effect to be that of its tails position automatically.

"The Moon represents you, Tenjoin-san," Saiou stated calmly. "You have hidden nightmares, deep within your unconscious, causing great emotional anguish. You can either attempt to work through it on your own, or…"

"Let me guess," Fubuki interrupted. "If I join your Hikari no Kessha thingy, you'll help me work through it."

"How'd you guess?"

"That seems to be one of your underlying themes. You're constantly talking about destiny, and you seem to be interested in expanding your cult."

"Not a cult."

"Riiiiiight."

Truth be told, Fubuki was a slight bit shaken by Saiou's words. He hadn't told anyone, outside the people who were allowed to know, about his experience as Darkness. And heck, he hadn't told anyone, not even Asuka, about the fact that he still felt Darkness around him. Saiou, meanwhile, had figured both of those things out. It was slightly unnerving.

"Don't bother to hide it, Tenjoin-san," Saiou mentioned. "I know all about the darkness's effect on your life – mind reading is a very useful ability, you see. And if you join the Hikari no Kessha, the Light will protect you from the darkness ever taking you again. After all, as the saying goes, all the darkness in the world cannot extinguish the light of a single burning candle, and the Light is far more than any single candle."

He then activated the spell card Suit of Sword X. The internal coin was flipped and landed as heads, causing all monsters on Fubuki's side of the field to be destroyed. Fubuki gasped slightly as his dragon dissolved into tiny yellow particles. _Well, Accursed Ring is useless now…_

"Now, Arcana Force XVIII: The Moon, attack Tenjoin-san's life points directly!"

Fubuki, however, had placed two cards face down, not just one. Just as the Moon was about to strike the final blow, Fubuki activated the trap card Ring of Destruction. Destroying the Moon, both Saiou and Fubuki took 2800 points of damage, and both of them hit 0 life points at the exact same time. Somehow, the projected holograms had enough force behind them to knock both of the duelists onto their rears.

A couple minutes passed as both of the young men fought spells of dizziness. Finally, Fubuki managed to stand up and offered Saiou a hand, saying, "That was a good match."

Saiou accepted the help, but replied confusedly, "I don't understand. The darkness is unable to defeat the light, and yet you were able to overcome your destiny."

Fubuki tilted his head. "Supposing I believe all this crazy stuff about destiny, darkness and light, then if it was my destiny to not win, then I guess I followed my destiny. By most tournament rules, when there's a tie, neither player advances." He picked up his surfboard and was about to head inside, but he finished, "And about that candle thing… all the darkness in the world may not be able to extinguish the light of a single burning candle, but you know what?"

"What?" Saiou asked, somewhat curious.

"No matter how bright a candle gets, the light can't prevent the candlestick from creating a shadow."

With that, the Blizzard Prince walked toward his dorm room, leaving a slightly confused Saiou on the beach.

* * *

_Author's Note: Thank you so much for the very kind reviews. To tell the truth, the one asking if I was going to set Fubuki on fire made me laugh. Honestly, I'm not the kind of person who would set him on fire… purposefully…_

_This is probably the only actual duel you will ever see me attempt to write, as I barely know the rules to the card game, and from writing this, I realize now that I cannot write duels without them becoming extremely boring. All of the cards played are featured in GX by various characters (though not necessarily Fubuki and Saiou), and I got their statistics from Janime. As for Fubuki's tarot card being the Moon… well, the Moon has to do with the unconscious, which can bring both great inspiration and horrible nightmares. Hopefully, I've managed to characterize Darkness as a force lurking in Fubuki's unconscious mind that helps him, but is also looking for an opportunity to wreak havoc. (And if I'm wrong about the card's meaning, I'm very sorry… I do not claim to be an expert on the Tarot.)_

_I'm not exactly sure how Spotlight works, but I am assuming for the sake of this fic that if there aren't any monsters on his side of the field, it can't target any of them and therefore gets destroyed. If I'm wrong… well, as I said, I barely know the rules. I'm sorry. It doesn't particularly affect the story though…_

_Oh, and I have an announcement. Starting…well, today, seeing as here it's way after midnight on the twenty-first, I'm going to be on a trip for two weeks. I'm going to be traveling all across the United States to see various places where my extended family grew up and stuff. I will still be writing as much as I possibly can, and I will update if I have something written and internet access, but I cannot guarantee that I will have internet access every night, and therefore, please don't expect updates at the same speed that I've been going recently. Just thought I'd warn you._


End file.
